When was the last time you did something for the first time?

New experiences light up different parts of our brain than when we’re just going through the motions. We’re more engaged and less on automatic pilot. It’s exciting and enriching.

However, new experiences can also elicit fear, uncertainty and doubt. It triggers the part of our brain that wants familiarity, predictability and stability.

In these scenarios, the main reason you would not move forward would be because your brain associates more pain with the experience than excitement.

A simple but helpful way around this is to ruminate about all of the reasons the new experience would enrich your life. How you would feel, what you would learn, how you might grow.

Ride that wave of excitement until it takes you to the first step of the experience, and then let it unfold from there.